Willaed l



(KOMM) A. L. QUILLIAM.

MOWEB.. No. 384,712. Patented June 19, 1888.

u V A* .E '91 2712923 gum a. IIIIIIIIIIHIII UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT i.. QUILLIAM, or GHATEAUGAY, NEW YORK.

VIOWER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 384,712, dated June 19,1888.

Application tiled November 15. 1837. Serial No. 255,218. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be 1t known that I, ALBERT L. QUILLIAM,

"ofhateaugay, in the county of Franklin and State of New York, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Mowers, of which the followingis a specification.

rlhis invention is an improvement in the class of mowers having twocutter-bars which reciprocate in opposite directions simultaneously. Sofar as I am aware, success has not heretofore been attained with thesemowers, and the failure has been due to one or all of the followingfaults in construction: First, the two cranks employed for driving thecutterbars had an equal throw;77 second, the wristpins of the respectivecranks were placed in line and diametrically opposite 5 third,thecutters were not properly proportioned in width to the width between theguard-fingers and to the throw of the cranks. In a machine having thesefeatures of construction the oppositely-moving cutters do not meet atsuch a point as enables them to be properly supported by theguard-fingers while making their out, and hence they are sprung7 or bentdownward under the weight and pressure of the grass, thus preventingtheir edges from working in close contact with the upper cutters, asrequired to enable them to cut inthe best manner-zl e., so as to avoidclogging.

By the construction hereinafter described and claimed I have overcomeall difculties and produced a machine which works perfectly in theeld,and is also ofvery light draft.

Figure lis a plan view of the parts of a mower embodying my invention.Fig. 2 isa horizontal section of the double crank and parts immediatelyconnected therewith. Fig.

3 is a crosssection on line am, Fig. l. Fig. 4L is a perspective view ofthe double crank detached. Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the relation ofthe wrist-pins of the double crank to the axis thereof in a machinewhich runs to the right, and also the position of the cutters relativeto each other, the guard-lingers and the double crank when ready tobegincutting in one direction. Fig. 6 is a diagram showing the same partsand' their local relation when the cut is half completed in the samedireetion. Fig. 7 is a diagram showing the relative positions of thesame parts when the eut ters are ready to begin their return eut-73.ej.,

.a cut in the direction opposite to that shown in Figs. 5 and 6. Fig.Sis a diagram showing` the positions of the wrist-pins relative to each.i other and the axis when arranged for a machine that runs to the left.

The upper and under cutter-bars,Aand A', are respectively provided withbeveled cutters a a', whose iiat sides work in contact. The said cuttersreciprocate through the slotted guard-lingers B, being operated byconnecting-rods C C,attached to wrist-pinsl 2 of the double crank D. Theunder cutters rest on and are supported bythe under side of theguard-fingers. i

v I will now proceed to indicate the features of novelty constituting myinvention.

Instead of placing the wrist-pins 1 2 in alignnient with the axis of theshaft E, and also at equal distances from said axis, as usualheretofore,I adopt the arrangement which is shown-that is to say, the center of thewristpin l (to which the connecting'rod C of the upper cutter-bar, A, isattached) is placed five eighths of an inch, and the wrist-pin 2 (of theunder cutter-bar, AQ) is placed three-eighths of an inch from the axis.Of course the throws of the respective cranks are double thesedistances-to wit, one and one-fourth inch and threefourths of an inch. iThe wrist-pins are also not in alignment with the axis, (see diagrams,Figs. 5 and 6,) but at points indicating an angle of about sixtydegrees-that is to say, one of them is about thirty degrees from thediametrical line drawn through the other wrist-pin and the axis. Thereason for these positions of the wrist-pins will be presentlyexplained. About ninety per centum o f the single-cntter-bar mowers havecutters which are three inches wide, and the remaining ten per oentumare two and one-half inches wide. A `cutter having a less angle thanisafforded the latter width will not work with the narrow ledger-platesordinarily used. I have found that I secure a good result with cuttersonly two inches wide; hence I employ twenty-four cutters on eachcutter-bar in place of sixteen, as usual in single-cutter-bar machines.There are, therefore, forty-eight cutters in all, workroo ing againsteach other, and ata comparatively slight angle, instead of one-thirdthat number working against dull-edged ledger-plates at a considerablygreater angle. The result is that the grass is cut by my apparatus muchmore easily, so that the draft of the machine is proportionally less.Besides this great advantage in consequence of the cutters actingagainst each other, they are to a large degree selfsharpening, and mayin many, if not most, cases be used an entire season without requiringto be removed for resharpening.

The guard-lingers B are aboutseven-eighths of an inch wide at base, andthe distance between them is equal to the width of the cutters-to wit,two inches.A The throw of the lower cutter-bar being th ree-fourths ofaninch, the lower cutters, c', are limited in their reciprocation so as topass only about half their width beyond the sides of their respectiveguardfingers in moving either way. This limitation of movement isnecessary in order that the said cutters a may be properly supported bythe lower portions of the guardfingers B while cutting, and thus beprevented from bending or springing downward under the weight of thegrass and pressure due to forward draft of the machine. In other words,if the cutters, a', should meet the upper cutters,a,at a pointequidistant between the guard-ngers B they would be bent downward, andthus fail to work in close edgecontact with the upper ones, so thatclogging would inevitably result, and the success of the machine wouldthereby be endangered, if not destroyed. By my arrangement andproportional relation of parts the line of cut of each pair of coactingknives a a is as close to the side of the guard-fingers as practicable.(See Figs. l and 7,where the cutters a a are shown at the limit of theirmovement in one direction and ready to begin the return movementindicated by the arrows.) The point where the cutters meet, which is theline of cut in such return movement, will be close to the guard-fingersat the right of each pair of coacting cutters. In diagram, Fig. 6, thecutters have completed about half of their movement, and yet the lineofcut is show-n to be the same as before. In diagram, Fig. 7, thecutters are cutting in the reverse direction to that indicated in Figs.5 and 6, and hence the line of cut is close to the oppositeguardfingers-that is to say, the guard-fingers at the left of each pairof coacting cutters. Thus the lower cut-ters, c', are supported by theguardiinge'rs B while making their out, and therefore always work in soclose contact with the upper ones, a, that clogging is au impossibility;but it will be seen that to enable the upper cutters, a, to meet thelower ones, a', at the point indicated the former must travel a greaterdistance, and forthis reason the upper cutter-bar, A, is given a throwof one-half inch more than the under one, A.

The reason for placing the wrist-pins l 2 out of alignment with the axisof crank I) can now be understood. By reference to Figs. l, 5, 6, itwill be seen that the shaft E is driven to the right, (regarded from therear of machine,) and the wrist-pin 1 of the upper bar,A, is on the samehorizontal line with the crankaxis,while the other wrist-pin, 2, isthirty degrees above such line. As the shaft rotates the lower cutterbar, A', will obviously move first and faster than A, since itswrist-pin 2 is farther from the dead-center. Thus the cutters a a arecaused to work-z'. e., slide on each other-with the required rapidity atthe beginning of their stroke, 'which they would not do if bothwrist-pins were on the deadcenter-z'- e., at diametrically-oppositepoints.

As above stated, the shaft E is driven to the right. This is the usualdirection of motion in single-cutter-bar machines; but some machines runto the left, and of course in such a case the local relation of thewrist-pins to the axis must then be changed, otherwise the cutters willnot meet properly and not cut at all. The necessary change is indicatedin Fig. 8, the wrist-pin 2 being placed the same distance below or onthe other side of the diametrical line as it is above said line in Fig.5. In other words, when the wrist-pins are set for a machine running tothe left, they are at an angle of about sixty degrees on the other sideof the 'axis from the one they occupy when the machine runs to theright, as

in Figs. 5, 6.

The double-crank piece D is adapted for attachment to the shaft E of asinglecutterbar mower in the same manner as the single crank ordinarilyemployed thereon. Thus the disk formed on the inner end of the crank Dis bored, as shown in Fig. 4, to receive the end of the shaft, and isrigidly keyed thereon.

It will be seen that a single-cutter-bar machine may be converted into adouble-cut mower by attaching my double crank and cutter-bars and therequisite number of guardfingers.

I have indicated the proportional relation of the double-crank cuttersand guard-fingers, and the number of the latter which experience hasdemonstrated to be the best; but it is practicable to secure measurablygood results by employing a less number of cutters and guard-fingers,and in such case the cutters would of course be made wider, and hencethe length of throw of the cranks might require to be changedcorrespondingly.

In general I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to theprecise proportions stated, since some small variations may bepracticable. A

1. In a cutting apparatus of the class hereinbefore indicated, thecombination of the double crank whose wrist-pins are set out ofalignment with each other and the axis,and at unequal distances from thelatter, to wit, fiveeighths of an inch and three-eighths of au inch,

IOO

IZO

respectively, a series of guard-fingers placed each other and the axis,and `at unequal disabout two inches apart, and a series of upper tancesfrom the latter, as shown and de- 1o cutters and a series of undercutters Whose scribed.

width is the sameor nearly the same as the 5 guard-lingers,substantially as shown and de- ALBERT L' QUILLAM' scribed, for thepurpose specified. Witnesses:

2. The detachable double crank D, having WILLARD L. COLLINS,

Wrist-pins 1 and 2 set out of alignment with WILLARD S. ALVORD.

